India using disinformation to target adversaries: Canadian intelligence

“India is using disinformation to project a positive image globally, while targeting specific adversaries. This includes countering activities it considers as “anti-India”.

Canada’s Foreign Interference Commission received considerable information about India’s disinformation operations Thursday, including documents from the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), CSIS, and Global Affairs’ Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM). The most explosive revelations today revolved around the RRM’s meticulous observations of Indian government-aligned media outlets engaging in information manipulation and disinformation against the Sikh community in Canada, Bhai Hardeep Singh Nijjar, and the Government of Canada. 

In an undated document on Canadian Cyber Operations, the CSE clearly concluded that:

“India is using disinformation to project a positive image globally, while targeting specific adversaries. This includes countering activities it considers as “anti-India” including the Khalistan movement.”

This was reiterated by CSIS In a February 2023 Intelligence Assessment which noted that India is a “primary FI threat actor in Canada” that seeks to influence the Government of Canada towards pro-India policies, counter perceived threats to its domestic stability emanating from Canada, and propagate pro-India narratives in Canada. Indian threat actors are noted to target all levels of government and politicians.

A subsequent section notes that Indian actors are “seeking to cultivate Canadian politicians” to advance Indian interests in all levels of government within Canada. In a heavily redacted paragraph 77, the document references attempts at “promoting a pro-India narrative in Canadian public discourse (e.g., in media, social media and political discussions” and referencing the “use of a disinformation as a key FI tactic against Canada.”

This analysis clearly comes to the forefront in the days following PM Trudeau’s statement about India’s involvement in the assassination of Bhai Hardeep Singh Nijjar. 

In a September 21, 2023 report released by the RRM, government agencies and researched directly addressed Indian narratives amplified on a massive global scale. Making note of “high levels of similarity in the tone and type of narratives that circulated” among Indian outlets, the report concluded that these outlets “amplified several narratives that targeted PM Trudeau, Canada’s High Commissioner to India, Canada’s national security agencies, Canada’s Punjabi Sikh diaspora, and Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s political beliefs.”

The RRM honed in on a number of narratives and long-standing tropes that these outlets sought to amplify including:

• Canada allegedly “safeguards” so-called “terrorist and extremist forces”;

• Canada should use violence against supporters of Khalistan;

• Attempts to discredit Bhai Hardeep Singh’s role as a community leader or raising questions about his citizenship;

• And targeting the Prime Minister and Leader of the NDP specifically in order to discredit them based on a number of racialized tropes. 

The RRM’s report meticulously analyzes these information networks in the context of Modi’s increasing authoritarianism—rooted in a “spectacular rapprochement between the BJP and the big families dominating [India’s] media scene.” The report not only catalogues the major outlets and their parent corporations, but also documents the vitriolic narratives spewed by their representatives including a threatening comment that “India will respond and this response will be disproportionate.”

The evidence heard by the Commission not only reiterates that India is employing a variety of tools and methods to target Canada’s democratic process, but that Indian actors continue to aggressively target the Sikh diaspora in order to marginalize and isolate the community from public life in all its forms.